Wednesday, December 17, 2008

33+4 Weeks

Well, this little tater tot is getting grounded as soon as she's born.

Thursday night I didn't sleep very well - waking up every hour or two, having weird pains, and (of course) peeing all the time. It wasn't that I was overly exhausted, or anything, but when I went into work that morning, it wasn't the funnest experience ever. While getting ready that Friday morning, I thought I was getting some weird cramps and just tried to keep an eye on it. The day before I had just been to the doctor and told him about some weird sensations south of the border and he just said it was all normal, without actually telling me how to help or prevent them.

Around 11:00am - I can't take it anymore. I've already had 3 five minute breaks in the break room, laying on my side on the dirty carpet, and rubbing my aching lower back and tummy. I told my manager that I felt something was going on, something didn't feel right and that I needed to call my doctor. When I did, all the operator would let me do was leave a message for my doctor's nurse and, being half-frustrated and half in pain, I called Spud while crying and sitting on a shelf in the stock room. This, of course, scares the crap out of him and he starts making plans to get a ride to pick me up (I had our only car with me) and then drive me home. All I needed to do was give him the go ahead.

Manager lets me go home and starts getting excited that the tater tot may be coming soon (she's never been pregnant before and doesn't realize how scary it is to be this early). Skip ahead to the afternoon, laying in bed, feet propped up, and feeling contractions coming more and more and the dreaded "low, dull, back ache" on the list of pre-term labor signs. After a nap and dinner, it's still going on so I take a bath and we head out to the Labor & Delivery Department of the hospital. It's not that they hurt immensely or anything, but one of the things that they stress to us in Childbirthing Class is that if your water breaks or if you have more than 4 contractions in an hour, then you should call your doctor or go into Labor & Delivery.

They put me on the monitor and turns out I'm having contractions every two minutes. Ha! Who knew? While they were mild (the highest was a 26 out of 100), it was enough of a pattern to scare the nurses. The one who examined me went out to the nurses station and happily exclaimed, "She's thick and closed!" meaning that we weren't having this baby 7 weeks early tonight!

So Spud and I watch Will and Grace, relax and check out the room we may be in soon, while the nurses force me to drink a lot of water to rehydrate my contracting muscles. They flip and turn me from side to side trying to get a good read on the tot's heartbeat and to make me slow down these crazy contractions!

Everything ended up fine and I didn't think that I was really going to give birth just yet, but I just wanted to be checked to see if what I was feeling was actually what was going on. So now I had a "test-run" and will feel a little better prepared when it's "show-time!" I took the next day off of work ("You just lost [X amount] dollars!" Spud exclaimed) and rested in bed for the day. I still felt a couple very mild contractions, but I've been trying to drink a ton of water to help prevent them.

A Potato Story

Spud and Mama Spud met when she was a freshman in high school, and he was a sophomore. They met during a Thespian Troupe spring production of "School House Rock! Live!" Mama was in the chorus and Spud worked behind the scenes. Although neither of them could remember the exact moment they met, they soon became fast friends and stayed that way for the rest of high school.

During Mama's sophomore year, they even went on a date to Italian Oven. As Spud remembers, they had a Pizza Rustica for dinner, drove to visit some friends, and he scared her by taking a turn a little too fast.

After the date, though, they remained friends and hung out often at parties, during plays, and with other theatre friends. They even dated each others close friends.

During Mama's senior year of high school, Spud went an hour away to college. They chatted via Instant Messanger and spent weekends and summers working on plays. Then, the summer before Mama went to college, they both found themselves unattached. After a brief courtship with a "rebound guy," she realized that the person she really should have been with was Spud.

Mama came to visit Spud at college and during their first visit, they had their first kiss. During the second visit, they discussed seeing each other on a regular basis, what it would do to their friendship, and how they really felt about each other. They decided to "give it a shot" on September 29th, 2001, the date written on a bottle of Parrot Bay Rum to remind them.

Two summers later, they moved into an apartment together and got engaged on September 29th, 2003 - their 2nd anniversary. They were married two years later on a North Carolina beach on August 6th, 2005 with the sand in their toes and surrounded by close friends and family.

The Spudly's moved from the apartment to a small apartment in a residence hall so Spud could start his Graduate Assistant-ship in Residence Life. They stayed two years in an apartment the size of three dorm rooms and finally moved to Ohio for a Director position that included a house with three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, and a back yard.

They also acquired an ill fated black lab puppy with anger management issues named Riley, and a orange and white striped cat, named Lily.

Just after the school year ended, Mama Spud found out she was 4.5 weeks pregnant with Tater Tot. She actually thought she had a bladder infection! Within 4 weeks, Spud put out resumes, found a higher paying job, packed the house, fostered out the dog, loaded the truck and moved the growing family to Kentucky, where they reside now.

They also confiscated a kitten from the residence halls and when she was abandoned by the owners, they adopted her and named her Luci - short for Lucifer because she was (and is!) a hellion!

Tater Tot was born on January 21st, 2009 at 12:56pm after 17 hours of labor. She weighed 6 pounds, 4 ounces, and was 18 inches long. Story of Tot's Birth Spud and Mama will celebrate their 5th wedding anniversary in August and will have been together for 9 years at the end of September.

On Tater Tot's first birthday (and Mama's 27th!) we found out that we're expecting another baby! Baby girl "Small Fry"came into the world three weeks early Story of Fry's Birth while Big Sister Tot was only 19.5 months old! Small Fry weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long. She was born on September 2nd at 2:58am after 12 hours (and 3 days) of labor.

And when Small Fry was just a month shy of her first birthday, we found out we were expecting again! Baby Boy Sprout was born March 8, 2012 at 7:30am, was 8 lbs, 7 oz and 22 inches long. The harrowing story of his birth by crash c-section can be found in the Story of Baby Sprout's Birth